South African Indie Studio Launches GrowBud, a Desktop Cannabis Game Blending Productivity and Play

Pretoria, South Africa – 26 January 2026 – South African indie studio Make Games Play today launches GrowBud, a desktop-based cannabis cultivation game that runs as a sidebar alongside everyday work, offering players a light, interactive companion while they go about their day. Created by game designer and lecturer Jared Brandjes, GrowBud is available globally from today 18:00 SAST on STEAM for PC gamers: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3923900/GrowBud/ and trailer for a sneak peak https://youtu.be/M6sHsPMVrlc.

GrowBud lets players manage over 20 stylised cannabis strains from sapling to six-star buds, each with unique visual personalities and care needs. Train Wreck is literally made from steel and bolts, while other strains take on equally creative interpretations of their names. Players acquire new tools, customise grow houses with various themes and decorative items, experiment with genetic modifiers and choose between hands-on growing or relaxed idle play, while completing challenges and fulfilling dispensary orders for rewards and rare strains. Designed for adult audiences, GrowBud takes a playful, horticultural approach to cannabis, focusing on cultivation and plant biology rather than consumption.

GrowBud launches with a limited-time discount for early adopters. Players who have wishlisted the game will receive a notification at launch.

Every plant begins its life as a tiny sapling, progressing through vegetative growth, pre-flowering, flowering, harvest and recovery cycles. Each phase introduces new needs and potential for interesting encounters (random events that might bring pests, beneficial mutations, or unexpected challenges). When things get dicey, you can toss a coin to ward off spider mites, throw some dice to score extra buds, or test your luck at various minigames sprinkled throughout the experience.

As strains mature, they can be levelled up through mastery tiers to produce perfect six-star buds. The pleasure lies in the slow, rewarding cycle of consistency, where nurturing the smallest start into a flourishing, high-quality plant becomes a satisfying ritual woven into your day.

At the heart of GrowBud is discovery. Each strain comes with its own genetic traits, growth patterns, visual personality and care requirements, encouraging players to experiment, learn and adapt. As players unlock new strains, they also gain access to deeper systems, including advanced equipment, research upgrades and genetic modifiers that allow them to shape how their plants grow.

The game introduces two parallel progression paths: The Grow Club and The Bud Club. Both offer ongoing challenges and goals that can be pursued simultaneously, giving players freedom to explore multiple playstyles without having to choose a single path.

Between grows, you can stock up on items from the vending machine, show off your skills at the crane game for more customisation options, buffs and items, spin the wheel-of-fortune for lucky bonuses, or play a round of blackjack to unwind. These lighter moments add personality and variety to the cultivation flow.

As you unlock more strains and build up your operation, you can fulfil orders from in-game dispensaries, earning gold and unlocking rare strain variants. It's a light economic loop that gives you goals to chase without disrupting the game's relaxed pace.

While GrowBud is inspired by cannabis culture, its focus is firmly on the science, horticulture and craft of cultivation (with a playful, stylised twist). The game is designed for adult audiences and presents cannabis from an educational and agricultural perspective. Players learn about real-world strain characteristics, plant biology, genetic variation and growing techniques, with references to therapeutic CBD applications appearing within gameplay challenges.

There is no depiction or encouragement of drug use. Instead, the experience centres on growth cycles, plant care and systems management. Think less "smoke session" and more "digital greenhouse with personality." Or, as the developers like to joke: all the calm, none of the coughing.

By framing cannabis as a complex and fascinating plant rather than a recreational product, GrowBud offers a playful, surprisingly soothing and visually creative take on the theme.

GrowBud blends idle mechanics, simulation depth and gentle progression into something that feels both engaging and easy to live with. Your plants grow faster when you're focused in other apps (working, studying, gaming, or just browsing), so the game actually rewards real productivity instead of demanding constant attention. You can step in whenever it suits you, check on your plants, make a few decisions, maybe play a quick minigame, and step back out without breaking your flow.

In a digital landscape dominated by speed, alerts and intensity, GrowBud offers something different: a living space on your screen that grows quietly in the background, inviting small moments of interaction, curiosity and satisfaction throughout the day.

If you are interested in requesting a key to review the game or play it for your audience, you can do so by emailing makegamesplay.jared@gmail.com. Ends.

Make Games Play is a South African game development studio specialising in the creation of high-quality interactive experiences across PC, mobile and immersive platforms, delivering both client projects and original intellectual property. Guided by a philosophy of “make it work, then make it good,” the studio blends creativity with technical expertise in areas such as multiplayer development and user experience design to craft engaging, meaningful games while supporting the growth of homegrown talent and the local game development ecosystem.

GrowBud

Samantha Hogg-Brandjes | samantha@ginjaninja.co.za | +27 84 458 4857